Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many server racks. Each server rack, in turn, includes many servers and associated computer equipment.
Because the computer room of a computing facility may contain a large number of servers, a large amount of electrical power may be required to operate the facility. In addition, the electrical power is distributed to a large number of locations spread throughout the computer room (e.g., many racks spaced from one another, and many servers in each rack). Usually, a facility receives a power feed at a relatively high voltage. This power feed is stepped down to a lower voltage (e.g., 110V). A network of cabling, bus bars, power connectors, and power distribution units, is used to deliver the power at the lower voltage to numerous specific components in the facility.
Some data centers include back-up components and systems to provide back-up power to servers in the event of a failure of one or more source power feeds to a power system. In some data centers, back-up power source provides back-up power, and a switchgear apparatus switches between routing either the utility or back-up power to the servers. Various switchgear apparatuses may be manufactured with various internal control modules that determine whether to switch between power feeds based on various conditions. Such various switchgear apparatuses, as a result, may operate differently in common circumstances, potentially complicating predictability of power distribution operations and presenting a risk of unforeseen and undesirable performance of switching operations. Such performance could lead to loss of power to the servers, leading to down-time which may result in a significant loss in computing resources. In some critical systems such as hospital equipment and security systems, down-time may result in significant disruption and, in some cases, adversely affect health and safety.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.